Carpet base element

ABSTRACT

A carpet element has pile yarns wound round a backing material strip having narrow incisions along its side edges for receiving and holding the yarns. The strip is provided with connecting means along its edges for connecting the strip with other similar strips.

United States Patent [191 Panker [451 May 29,1973

[54] CARPET BASE ELEMENT [76] Inventor: Bent Jorgen Panker, Bregnerodvej3450,'Allerod, Denmark [22] Filed: Dec. 17, 1970 [21] Appl. No.: 99,045

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Dec. 23, 1969 Denmark "6817 [52]US. Cl ..52/660, 28/15 [51] Int. Cl ..E04c 2/40 [58] Field of Search..28/72 P, 2, 15; 52/660, 661, 665, 673

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,545,879 7/1925 Campbell"252/660 X 4/1943 McIntyre .28/2 9/1959 Wolff ..28/l5 FOREIGN PATENTS ORAPPLICATIONS 589,935 7/1947 Great Britain ..52/660 Primary ExaminerLouisK. Rimrodt AttorneyFleit, Gipple & Jacobson [5 7] ABSTRACT A carpetelement has pile yarns wound round a backing material strip havingnarrow incisions along its side edges for receiving and holding theyarns. The strip is provided with connecting means along its edges forconnecting the strip with other similar strips.

10 Claims, 10 Drawing Figures PATENIEMUYZEBIDH 31,735,537

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E INVENTQR ATTORNEYS PATENTEL WW9 I973 SHEEI 2 BF 2 FIG. 7

CARPET BASE ELEN'I By the greater part of the carpets, rugs, and wallhangings on the market are made as industrial products on large,expensive power looms. Certain types of carpets and rugs, however, havea structure that enables them to be made by more manually operatedmethods. This holds good of for instance pile constructions, particularly Rya and smyrna carpets and rugs, which comprise a backingfabric into which pile yarns are woven or knotted. The pile yarns areoften inserted in the backing in the form of pile loop rows on the upperface of the carpet, and the loops are then cut up so that the pile yarnswill form tufts.

In most manual carpet and rug making methods a finished backing, forinstance a burlah fabric, is used in the desired dimensions and the pileyarns are sewed or knotted therein. For carrying out this process itwill often be necessary to spread the carpet or rug backing, or at anyrate part thereof, over a table or to suspend it in a frame, and theconstruction itself is highly timeconsuming. However, it is also knownto make carpets and rugs in greater or smaller sections which are thensewn together or joined in other ways. The division in smaller unitsinvolves a series of practical advantages, but does not affect the timeof production to any appreciable degree.

This invention relates to a method of making a pile carpet or rugcomprising a plurality of carpet sections which are joined together orattached to acommon base, and it is the aim of the invention to providea method which can be carried out manually much easier and faster thanthe known methods.

This object has been accomplished by providing carpet sections made bypushing pile yarns into incisions in the edges of a strip of carpetbacking material. The insertion of the pile yarns into incisionsprovided for this purpose in a narrow strip of a suitable material, for

instance plastics, is a very simple procedure that can be carried outrapidly and without great effort on the part of the operator. The smallcarpet sections of which the finished carpet or rug is to be made upmake it possible to adapt the carpet or rug to any requirement and alsofacilitate the production of patterns therein. It is a further advantageof the said method that several persons can simultaneously make carpetsections for the same carpet or rug so that the production time can befurther reduced.

In the employment of the said method the pile yarns may be cut inadvance into lengths corresponding to the desired pile height, wherebycolor variation in the individual strip member is made possible, but theeasiest and fastest procedure is the winding of a bundle of pile yarnsonto the strip and subsequently cutting the yarns in the longitudinaldirection of the strip. Here the desired height of pile can be obtainedin a simple manner by means of a preferably rail-shaped spacing memberextending along the upper face of the backing strip in close contacttherewith, after the winding and cutting of the pile yarns the saidspacing member is withdrawn.

The invention also comprises a strip for use in carrying out the saidmethod, and this strip is specific in that it is provided along bothside edges with a series of incisions which are dimensioned to permitone or more pile yarns to be pushed into each incision to be heldsecurely therein. As strip material may conveniently be used a suitableplastics material, for instance polyethylene, which is cheap and alsokeeps production costs at a low level. Besides, this material exhibits asuitable degree of flexibility and elasticity which makes it easy topush the pile yarns into the incisions and secure a good hold thereon.

By forming each incision as a hole spaced by a short distance from theside of the strip edge and communicating with the edge through a narrowslit, a precise and uniform spacing of the pile tufts is ensured, and ifthe incision opens as a V-shaped notch from the bottom of which the slitextends the insertion of the pile yarns will be facilitated because thesaid notch will act as a guide for the yarns.

The joining of the finished strip elements into greater carpet sectionsmay be effected in many ways. A particularly simple and yet strong jointcan be obtained without increasing the cost of the strips appreciably byproviding the strips along one side edge with studs between theincisions extending at right angles to the plane of the strip and alongthe other side edge with holes between the incisions for engagement withcorresponding holes and studs of adjacent strips. Where adjacent stripsare staggered relatively to each other it is not necessary to join thestrip ends, but in practice it will be an advantage to be able toproduce end joints and for this purpose also the end edges of the stripare provided with respectively holes and studs. If the regions of thestrip in which the holes are provided are de pressed below the level ofthe rest of the strip surface the joined strips will present an entirelysmooth surface.

The strips may be joined in other ways as well. For instance may a tapeor snap fastener means be provided along the edges, each edge may beformed as one side of a zip fastener, or burdock closure means may beused as joining means. For example, note FIGS. 7 to 10. There are stillother ways of joining the strips, for instance sewing, gluing orwelding. A further possibility is to fasten the strips to each other bymeans of particular strip or string shaped connecting elements, by whicha very compact structure can be obtained.

To facilitate the application and retention of the said spacing memberprior to the winding of the pile yarns on to the strip, the strip mayfurther be provided with a plurality of holes preferably disposed on thelongitudinal center line and adapted to receive the studs of a spacingmember. As a further advantage the strip may be provided with yarnholding sheds on the under side.

The invention will be explained in greater detail here with reference tothe drawing, in which FIG. ll illustrates an embodiment of a carpetbacking strip according to the invention viewed from below,

FIG. 2 the same viewed in side elevation,

FIG. 3 presents a section along the line III-lIl in FIG. 1,

FIGS. 4 and 5 show a spacing rail for use in carrying out the methodaccording to the invention, viewed respectively from the side and fromthe end, and

FIG. 6 is a schematic and perspective view of part of a strip with aspacing rail placed in position and wound with pile yarns.

FIGS. 7 and 8 illustrate another embodiment of the inventive carpetbacking strip, the inventive carpet backing strip being provided with azipper half on each end.

FIGS. 9 and It) illusuate still another embodiment of the inventionwherein the inventive carpet backing strip is provided with burdockclosure means at each end.

The strip 1 shown in FIGS. 1 3 may conveniently be of a thermoplasticmaterial, for instance polyethylene, and be produced by moulding. Alongboth side edges the strip is provided with a series of incisions, eachformed by a V-shaped notch 2, a circular hole 3 aligned with and spacedslightly from the bottom of the notch, and a slit 4 connecting thebottom of the notch and the hole. The holes 3 serve to retain the pileyarns in the finished carpet or rug and their diameter may be forinstance 3 mm. In the embodiment shown here the comers between the sideedges of the strip and the sides of the V-shaped notch 2 are rounded.

Adjacent to the point of the substantially triangular projections 5defined by each pair of adjacent notches 2 in one side edge the strip isprovided with a cylindrical stud 6 extending downwardly disposed atright angles to the strip face. The free end of the said stud is formedas a head 7 of slightly greater diameter than the stem and of truncatedconfiguration. The length of the stem is slightly greater than thethickness of the strip, which may for instance be 1 mm. The stemdiameter may for instance be 2.2 mm.

At the other side edge the substantially triangular projections 5'defined between adjacent notches are depressed below the level of thebody of the strip so that the under side thereof is flush with the upperface of the projections 5', as shown clearly in FIG. 3. The saidprojections 5' are provided with holes 8 adjacent to the points and ofthe same diameter as the stem of the studs 6. The side edge 9 of thebody of the strip adjoining the depressed projection 5' is formed as acircle segment to accommodate the ends of the projections 5 of anadjacent strip. The joining of two strips 1 is effected by inserting thestuds 6 of one strip into the holes 8 of the other strip from the upperside of the latter. As a result of the depression of the projections 5the upper faces of the two strips will be disposed in the same plane andform a smooth surface.

The end sections 10 and 10' of the strip 1 are substantiallyrectangular, and one of the said sections 10 is provided with two studs6' corresponding to the studs 6, while the other section 10', which isdepressed in the same manner as the projections 5' as shown in FIG. 2,is provided with two holes 8 for receiving the studs 6' of an adjacentstrip.

On the under side the strip 1 has a low, longitudinally extendingcentral ridge 1 1 provided with spaced groups of conical studs 12 thatserve to retain the portions of the pile yarns in position on the underside of the finished carped or rug. On the upper side opposite the ridge1 1 the strip is provided with a longitudinal groove for guiding aspacing rail.

Spaced along the longitudinal center line of the strip there is furtherprovided a plurality of holes 13 adapted to receive studs 21 on thelower face of the spacing rail shown in F168. 4 and 5. This rail may beof plastics or metal. In the upper face of the rail is formed a groove22 extending in the entire length of the rail and the object of whichwill appear from the following.

The construction of a carpet or rug by the method according to theinvention may be divided into two main operations, namely:

1 The making of a plurality of carpet or rug elements each comprising astrip 1 provided with pile yarns, and

2. The joining of the said carpet or rug elements.

For carrying out the first operation the rail 20 is placed on the upperface of a strip 1 as indicated in FIG. 6 and its studs 21 are introducedinto the holes 13 in the strip. Then the end of a bundle of yarnspreferably from a ball of yarn comprising for instance five yarns ispushed into one of the end holes 3 of the strip through the pertainingnotch 2 and the slit 4 with the yarn ends extending upwardly along theside of the rail 20. The yarns are then carried across the under side ofthe strip and pushed into the end hole 3 in the other side edge of thestrip to be carried upwards, across the rail 20 and downwards to thenext hole 3 in the first side edge, where it is again squeezed intoposition, and so the operation continues until the whole assemblycomprising the strip 1 and rail 20 has been wound with pile yarns, whichon their way have been fixed securely into all the holes 3 of the strip.An assembly wound in this manner is shown in FIG. 6, where the bundle ofyarns is designated 15. Then the pile yarns are cut by a knifeintroduced into the groove 22 in the upper face of the rail at one endand carried through the groove to the other end. After the cutting therail 20 is withdrawn, and the carpet or rug element is ready for assembly. The cut yarns will be disposed in two rows of tufts and form acompact pile of great body, the height of which is determined by theheight of the rail 20.

The second operation, which is the finishing part of the productionprocess, is performed by pressing the studs 6 of one carpet or rugelement into the holes 8 of another element, the material of which issufficiently resilient to permit the stud heads 7 to be pressed throughthe holes and brought into engagement with the under side of the stripso as to provide a suitable locking effect. When two webs of carpet hasbeen made in this manner, each comprising a plurality of strip elementsjoined in side by side relationship, the webs may be joined together endto end by means of the end studs 6 and the end holes 8'. And as theseend studs and holes are of the same dimensions and spaced by the samedistances as the side studs 6 and side holes 8, it will also be possibleto attach a transverse strip to the end edges of the strips in a web. Itwill obviously be possible also to stagger adjacent strips relatively toeach other and thus vary the color design. Projecting portions resultingfrom such staggering may simply be cut off to obtain a straight edge tothe carpet or rug.

The strips 1 may be varied in many ways both with respect to material,size and shape to be adapted to the character of the desired carpet.Especially the joining means may, as already mentioned, be formed inother ways than shown in the drawing and described here; they may evenbe dispensed with altogether where the elements are glued or weldedtogether. It may be desirable to apply a layer of a hardening glue tothe under side of the produced carpet for fixing the pile yarns.

What I claim is:

l. A carpet base element to which pile yarns may be fastened and whichis adapted to form together with other similar elements a larger carpetarea, said element having the form of a strip provided along its sideedges with spaced pinching devices for pile yarns, each pinching devicecomprising an aperture spaced from the adjacent side edge of said stripand connected to said edge through a narrow slot.

2. A carpet base element according to claim 1 wherein each slotcommunicates with the bottom of a V-shaped notch formed in the side edgeof the strip.

3. A carpet piece element according to claim 1, characterized in that itis provided along one side edge with studs disposed between theincisions extending at right angles to the plane of the strip and alongthe other side edge with holes between the incisions for engagement withthe studs of an adjacent strip.

4. A carpet piece element according to claim 3, characterized in that itis provided with studs and holes also along the end edges.

5. A carpet piece element according to claim 3, characterized in thatthe edge regions of the strip in which the holes are provided aredisplaced relatively to the level of the body of the strip.

' 6. A carpet piece element according to claim 1, characterized in thatit is provided with pieces of longitudinally extending fastening meansalong the edges.

7. A carpet piece element according to claim 1, characterized in thateach strip edge is formed as one side of a zip fastener.

8. A carpet piece element according to claim 1, characterized in thatthe strip edges are provided with burdock closure means.

9. A carpet piece element according to claim 1, characterized in that itis further provided with a plurality of holes preferably disposed on thelongitudinal center line and adapted to receive the studs of a spacingmember.

10. A carpet piece element according to claim 1, characterized in thatit is provided with yarn holding studs on the under side.

1. A carpet base element to which pile yarns may be fastened and which is adapted to form together with other similar elements a larger carpet area, said element having the form of a strip provided along its side edges with spaced pinching devices for pile yarns, each pinching device comprising an aperture spaced from the adjacent side edge of said strip and connected to said edge through a narrow slot.
 2. A carpet base element according to claim 1 wherein each slot communicates with the bottom of a V-shaped notch formed in the side edge of the strip.
 3. A carpet piece element according to claim 1, characterized in that it is provided along one side edge with studs disposed between the incisions extending at right angles to the plane of the strip and along the other side edge with holes between the incisions for engagement with the studs of an adjacent strip.
 4. A carpet piece element according to claim 3, characterized in that it is provided with studs and holes also along the end edges.
 5. A carpet piece element according to claim 3, characterized in that the edge regions of the strip in which the holes are provided are displaced relatively to the level of the body of the strip.
 6. A carpet piece element according to claim 1, characterized in that it is provided with pieces of longitudinally extending fastening means along the edges.
 7. A carpet piece element according to claim 1, characterized in that each strip edge is formed as one side of a zip fastener.
 8. A carpet piece element according to claim 1, characterized in that the strip edges are provided with burdock closure means.
 9. A carpet piece element according to claim 1, characterized in that it is further provided with a plurality of holes preferably disposed on the longitudinal center line and adapted to receive the studs of a spacing member.
 10. A carpet piece element according to claim 1, characterized in that it is provided with yarn holding studs on the under side. 